criminalmindsfandomcom-20200223-history
Stanley Usher
Stanley Usher is an incidental character who appears in the Season Four episode "Cold Comfort". Background A self-proclaimed psychic capable of reading people through their possessions, Usher originally lived in Oregon, gaining some small level of fame after helping find a missing child in Portland using his powers. At some point, Usher was charged with fraud, prompting him into moving from Oregon to Washington. Cold Comfort In 2009, when Brooke Lombardini is abducted by a serial killer, her desperate mother seeks Usher's aid in finding her, convincing a detective to give him Lombardini's necklace, which she had dropped when the killer had ambushed her. Once in possession of the necklace, Usher claims it gave him a vague vision, involving a fenced area, the color orange and the numbers 867, also claiming Lombardini feels weakened, tired and heavy. Later, when Rossi and JJ visit Mrs. Lombardini, Usher is present, being pulled to the side by Rossi, who is dismissive of the abilities Usher claims to have, having dealt with so-called psychics in the past. When Rossi tells him that the last thing Mrs. Lombardini needs is some con artist giving her false hope, Usher tells him to do his job and focus on profiling, which he claims some people don't believe in either. Later, when the local police become desperate, the detective heading the abductions and murders brings Usher in, willing to accept the help he is offering. Before reading a wig that belongs to a suspect, Usher is warmly greeted by JJ, who he, seeing the ring she has gotten to commemorate her son's birth, congratulates. While the results of the reading are not stated in full, the detective claims the wig belongs to someone who is "really sick" (though the man it belongs to, while a necrophiliac like the unsub, is later cleared as a suspect). The BAU eventually discover the killer's identity, Roderick Gless, but are unable to pinpoint his location. Thinking Usher can help, JJ brings him a letter Gless had sent to his mother. Usher claims the letter tells him that Gless is keeping Lombardini somewhere near a rocky shore. When the BAU and police actually do find Gless and rescue Lombardini, Rossi scoffs at Usher, stating that Gless' hideout is nowhere near a rocky shore, but is left stunned when Hotch removes one of Gless' curtains, revealing a billboard across the street, which depicts a rocky shore. Predictions *A fenced-in area: The room Gless kept his victims locked in had a fence-like covering over the entrance. *The color orange: The embalming fluid Gless used on his victims. Also seems like the color of the dress the victim was wearing. *Lombardini feeling weak, tired and heavy: Gless sedated his victims with barbiturates, to physically and mentally weaken them. *A rocky shore: Shown on a billboard directly across from Gless' hideout. Notes *The names Roderick Gless and Stanley Usher are a possible reference to Roderick Usher, a character in The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe, who is also the source of the bookend quote used at the beginning of the episode. Appearances *Season Four **"Cold Comfort" Category:Criminal Minds Characters Category:Minor Characters